BlackBeast

I'm just finishing up the Street 'Shee and getting it ready for the road, but can't decide on a name. I've decided to go with personalized license plates, so the rules in Colorado are any combination of up to 7 letters and numbers. Here's a few ideas that have been mentioned so far, feel free to vote for one or add a new one. 2QUIK4U ONALL4S 2 LEGIT BANSHEE 4 PLAY ROLTIDE (It's Crimson, for the Alabama fans) DV8R IMOKRU PLMEOVR DIFFRNT JST4FUN OUTLAW Pics Below, but the lighting is a little off. The paint is a candy-apple red. I'll get better pics soon.

I've got a Viper -2 chrome swingarm and a +10 chrome swingarm from Midwest Powersports & Machine. Both are in great shape. I'll trade both for a +4 or +6 swingarm and matching brake line. -Tim

Too each his own, kid. If you want to run 20's you'll have to have custom wheel adapters made by a machine shop, which will run you about $800 for a set of 4, possibly more. Either that or you'll have to find "blanks", which are wheels without the lug holes drilled yet. They're very hard to find, and with 20's just about impossible. If you can find them, you'll have to take them to a machine shop and have them custom drill the holes. Now for the reality check... Unless your 'Shee has quite a few mods, you're not hitting 100mph. It may feel like it when you're hauling through your neighborhood, but you're probably not that close. Now for a second dose of reality... IF you were actually hitting 100mph, you will definitly not get anywhere near that with 20s. If you consider how much more those wheels weigh, then add on the fact that the large diameter gives you way more rotational mass, it's going to take a LOT more horsepower to make it all turn. You'll be lucky to hit 45mph. If you or your parents have about $6000 to blow on wheels, tires, and adapters, more power to you. For that much money you can buy two of your friends thier own Banshee, and then you'd REALLY be the coolest kid on the block.

You made the right decistion by pushing the Banshee back into the garage. After a marriage gone south, it's normal to shy away from serious commitment like that. Making sure she's the right one before you make that decision again is the smart thing to do, and trying to force a decision when something doesn't feel right is never a good idea. Kudos to you for being stong, even though I know it hurts. A friend of mine once said, "Women are like monkeys... They never let go of one branch until they've got a firm grip on another." I don't neccessarily believe that myself. I'm sure she does care for you (and vice versa), but apparently you both want different things out of the relationship. You both deserve to be happy in a relationship, even if it's not with each other. Move on, and let her move on. You'll both eventually be happier. Best of luck to you both. -Tim

Used to be the Black Beast. As soon as I get her back on the road with new paint and motor, she'll be "On All Fours"

I'm curious... What modifications are made to the shift drum and gears (and whatever else) that allow you to shift without the clutch? Does anyone know, or is this all chicken-bones and voodoo? :shrug:

Got a set of balls?.... Buy a 'shee....

Didn't even think of using RZ gears... I have to replace a couple of my gears anyway due to wear, this would be the perfect time to do that. Makes sense since this is basically my "street bike" now. I'll have to look in to the swap a bit more, thanks for the heads up.

On the Can-Am, that is hauling butt on what is basically a utility quad. Very nice! On the raptor, I also had seen the article... and yeah, the rocket motor is the only reason it got to that speed. On the rotax, its mated to the Banshee cases, so I've got the six speed tranny.

OK, so Im an idiot. Not sure why I was thinking asphalt, but yeah... Ive even driven right past the Salt Flats... Anyone think I could actually top 150MPH with a 670 Rotax motor, or do you think I'll need NOS or turbo?

I'd be happy to try when mine's all finished... :thumbsup: Anyone happen to know what I would need to do to make it "official"? :shrug: I'm guessing a 1/4 mile track wouldn't cut it, would have to find a really nice road or track with a long straight-away. I don't mind driving across the US if anyone knows where to find one. -Tim

You're best bet is to get a frame with a clean title. It will save you a lot of headache in the long run, and you can find them on Ebay all the time. If they guy you're getting the frame from actually had a title and lost it, all he has to do is apply for a duplicate title through the DMV. It's usually only about $20. Otherwise, get a notorized bill of sale for the frame. You'll have to contact your DMV and have them run a title search to make sure it's not stolen (probably a good idea to do this before you buy it, or at least before you start building it). If you buy it from someone out-of-state, you'll probably have to do a title search in that state as well. Contact your state DMV, or go online and look up the procedures on how to "Bond for a title" in your state. You'll basically have to pay to get a bond for the title, which is sort of like buying insurance that guarantees the DMV that it isn't stolen. It'll probably run about $100 to get it bonded, and the DMV will give you a thick stack of paperwork that you'll have to fill out to go along with it. Like I said, your best bet is just to get a frame with a clean title.

Thanks guys... Apparently I can go down to a .023 wire, but not sure that would help much. I think I'm going to go ahead and bump up the metal to 18#. It's going to be a lot harder to form, but will be much stronger and easier to weld. This way I also won't need to keep refilling my Ar/CO2, which is a pain in the arse, and should be able to put it together much faster. I'm going to transfer the poster-board templates to plywood, which will let me trace the patters with my plasma cutter instead of using the dremel. This will definitely be nice since I'm cutting thicker metal now. As an added benefit, it will make these easier to reproduce since you guys seem to like it so much. :thumb: I won't start on the front fenders until the tank is done. I'll have to do some thinking on how I want it all to flow together. As for fuel capacity, the rough measurements indicate that it will be just a little short of twice the stock fuel capacity. The only real downside for trail riding are the sharp corners. On a bumpy ride, they might start to dig into your leg a bit if you're not wearing thick jeans. Maybe I'll chamfer the edges near the seat, that'll help a bit. -Tim

With a little luck, you'll be seeing another one very soon... :cool:

Welders on the lowest setting, and Im using 0.025 wire... Not sure that I can go any lower on the wire, but Ill check with the welding shop tomorrow and see what they say.

Grrrrr.... bad news. The welder is burning right through the 22#, and its warping like a mother f$@%er. Basically Ive wasted the past three days, and about $50 in materials.... Going to pick up some 20# or 18# and start over.

I dont have any fancy tools for shaping sheetmetal, so I tried to keep everything geometric. The way the curves all flow, the pieces automatically take the desired shape when you weld them together.

Okay, yeah... The DS650 fenders were kind of what I was thinking... Wow those are ugly.... :yankyank: Hmm... Back to the drawing board on those, I guess. Glad you guys like the look so far. I'm having a hard time trying to weld it without burning through. I've got the MIG on the lowest setting and I'm using Ar/CO2. That seems to help a little, but it still burns through on the edges if I'm not careful.

So far, it hasn't been too bad. It took about a day to do the template out of construction-paper, another day to trace the pieces onto sheet metal and cut them out, then tonight I did most of the welding. All in all, I've been at it for about three days, maybe 4-5 hours each night. The whole project I probably won't have finished until January if I'm lucky. A lot of that has to do with cash flow more than anything else. It's hard to finish projects like this without shelling out the dough. :sad:

Hey guys, I'm in the process of building a custom fuel tank and fenders from scratch. Here's the full thread: New Fuel Tank If you guys have any input on how it looks so far, or advice on how you think I should work the front / rear fenders, let me know. I'm thinking of doing "floating" fenders, basically like motorcycle fenders over the tires but not attached to the rest of the body (If that makes any sense at all....). Not sure how they would turn out, though. Any suggestions? -Tim

Got bored with the look of my Banshee, and wanted to change it up a bit. Obviously there are a few companies out there that make new plastics, but they all pretty much look the same. Since this thing will eventually be a show-bike and ridden on the street, I wanted something really wild and different. Extra fuel capacity would be nice, too. :baseball_w00t: I'm going to post updates on the entire rebuild of my Banshee from the ground-up, but it will probably be a long, slow, and painful process. A word of warning: I've never messed with sheet metal before. If you have any advice at all on how to do this better, PLEASE let me know! Anyhoo, here's how it all starts: I basically free-handed the stencils out of construction paper, and designed it one piece at a time. It was easiest to start with the backbone (the big square piece in the middle), then add the rest of the shapes from there. When it was all done, I used masking tape to hold it all together. The paper mock-up tank gave me a pretty good idea of how it would turn out. I used a Dremel tool to cut the shapes out of 22# steel, then made the bends and tack-welded it together. It's a bit sloppy for now, but gives a good idea of what the shape will be. Here's another shot: Here's a shot of it on the Banshee: And a side-shot... The new tank comes back a few inches further than the original tank, and is about 8 inches wider overall. This will require a new seat. I plan on making a stepped-design, similar to a sport-bike. This should give it a really aggressive profile when it's all done.

Sure thing. Right now I need to get caught up on some bills, but I'll start a build thread once I start working on it some more.

This one is mated up to the Banshee tranny, so I'll have 6 speeds of fiery death at my disposal. :shoothead: It was a little squirrely at 95+ with bone stock suspension and street tires. I'm hoping a steering stabilizer, wider A-arms, and the +10 swingarm will help tame it down. It'll be mainly road/track use, but I want to be able to keep up with the mid-sized sportbikes if possible.

Thanks. I'm actually hoping the actual hp numbers will be a little bit lower. As for being careful, I do know my own limits. I can be a knucklehead sometimes, but I don't get too crazy with that sort of thing. -Tim

Well, here's the deal... I'm building a quad and I will be completely honest - I don't have a freaking clue what it's going to be capable of. I'm hoping some of you guys have either heard of or seen something similar in action and can fill me in on how quickly I'm going to die on this thing. My old motor was around 400cc and had quite a few mods, so it was defnitely quick. I'm guessing I was in the 60hp range, but no dyno numbers to back it up. The new motor is a 670cc Rotax with variable exhaust and 40mm carbs. The only reason I went with this motor is because I got a smokin' deal on it. I've been told these things put out anywhere from 130 to 170hp, depending on the porting. I'll be running a 10 inch extended swingarm, 2 inch lowering kit, and probably Hoosier 69/10/10's on the rear. I'm not sure what gearing I'll be running yet, so I'm open to suggestions. I know there are a ton of variables to consider, so let's assume everything on the low side. Closer to 120-130hp, no wheelie bar, and probably geared for more top-end speed. Any ideas on what 1/4 mile, 1/8 mile, top speed, or 0-60 times? Anyone? Bueller?